Wednesday, July 23, 2008

EPA Email-gate: More Testimony

The saga of the Environmental Pollution Agency's CO2 policy-making process continued Tuesday with the testimony of former EPA political appointee Jason Burnett. Today's WaPo reported that Burnett testified to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the White House ordered EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to reverse a decision supporting California's request to implement rules cutting greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. Johnson told the committe under oath in January that the decision was his alone.

One thing is clear: At least one of these EPA officials is not telling the truth. Burnett's rather unusual career path is described in a profile in yesterday's NYTi, which notes:

What remains curious is how Mr. Burnett, a contributor to Democratic candidates -- including Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive presidential nominee -- and a policy specialist who counts some of the wealth of Silicon Valley’s Packard family as his inheritance -- came to be hired at the agency four years ago at the age of 27 as an adviser.